Looking for a new book?
CBC’s Sonali Karnick and Waubgeshig Rice are co-hosting Turtle Island Reads at this hour — a live public event at Kahnawake Survival School on Montreal’s South Shore, showcasing stories written by and about Indigenous Canadians.
About 130 people filled the room Wednesday evening to watch three advocates each champion one book of fiction written by an Indigenous Canadian author.
Watch the event live here and on our Facebook page starting at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Indian Horse, Nobody Cries at Bingo, and The Back of the Turtle are the three books in Turtle Island Reads.
Here’s a look at the advocates and the books they are defending.
Heather White, a high school teacher in Kahnawake who plays Caitlin in the APTN show Mohawk Girls, will defend Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Douglas & McIntyre).
Elma Moses, a storyteller and professor of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University, will defend Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont (Thistledown Press).
Gage Karahkwi:io Diabo, a musician, actor, local Kahnawake radio co-host and master’s degree student in First Peoples’ literatures at Concordia University, will defend The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King (HarperCollins).
The event, which draws its inspiration from CBC’s Canada Reads, is a collaboration with community leaders on the Kahnawake Mohawk territory, the Quebec Writers’ Federation and McGill University’s Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas.
A full house
More than 100 spectators crowded Kahnawake Survival School’s gymnasium to be there for the event.
Montrealer Wanda Potrykus got lost in Kahnawake, trying to find school, but finally found it and was “so pleased to be here.”
Potrykus came carrying a satchel full of books that she recommends, including a signed copy of Thomas King’s Massey Lecture series from 2003, The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative.
“I’m a one-woman booster of First Nations literature,” Potrykus said. “Every time a friend asks, ‘What can I read?’ I recommend First Nations literature. I’ve lent my books to people from Romania, from Syria, a lot of different places. When I heard about Turtle Island Reads, I thought I’d come.”